Litigation for Warehoused Skilled Worker Applicants

We are currently engaged in seeking redress to the queue-jumping processing policy Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) imposed in 2008, victimizing all those who applied before 27 February 2008 to immigrate to Canada as skilled workers; and its abject failure to honour the promise it made to those who applied after 27 February 2008 and before 26 June 2010 and who now find themselves in the same black hole as those who had applied before them. If you object to what CIC has done to you and wish to raise your voice, please join us.

Worldwide Lawsuit Against Immigration Canada

Thursday, the Toronto Star ran the enclosed article on the litigation; vide first press release.

It is interesting that the CIC spokesperson, Nancy Charon, exaggerated both how high the backlog was at the beginning of the year and how low allegedly it is now, providing some insight into CIC's allergy to the truth – concern about the lawsuit.

"Caron said the skilled-worker backlog from before February 2008 has been reduced from 641,000 people to 314,000. About 140,000 applicants from the early phase of the fast-track program are still awaiting a decision, she said."

However, according to CIC's website, at the end of 2010, the figures were stated as being 507,931 stalled applications and, as of June 30th, 482,107, of which 168,282 (not 140,000) were in the so-called "fast track".

To be sure, it is now November, and the 168,282 figure is through June 30th. Thus, CIC could have finalised 28,282 files in those four months. However, the total annual quota is 55,000 to 57,000. Thus, if such a reduction did occur, it would mean that CIC has the capacity to process over 75,000 FSW applications per annum. So, why is it holding back?

With an annual quota of 55,000 to 57,000, how were they able to reduce the backlog by 327,000 in ten months? Did that many applicants die while they were waiting?